The Chesterton
Utility Service Board has approved a wastewater treatment allocation for a
new residential planned unit development to be built on the heavily wooded
property immediately behind the Chesterton Post Office.

At their meeting
Monday night, members voted unanimously to approve the allocation, after
Superintendent Dave Ryan confirmed that the plant has sufficient capacity to
treat the 64 units, under development by John Nekus.

Nekus’ attorney,
Greg Babcock, told the Service Board that 62 of the units would be paired
patio homes, along the lines of those on Texas Street, with two
single-family units thrown in for good measure. The main entrance to the
11-acre development would be off South Calumet Road, immediately north of
the Post Office, with a secondary entrance off Richter Street. The
development would essentially back onto the Westchester South subdivision,
to the west.

Ryan, for his part,
said that the development would be served by the Barrington Bridge lift
station, and that planned upgrades to that lift station would take the 64
new units into account. There is, however, currently one hiccup: the Utility
has so far been unable to locate the six-inch force main which runs to the
lift station.

“We’re waiting for
a couple of locating services to get back to us,” Ryan noted, and the
possibility has been discussed of using ground-penetrating radar.

The force main
isn’t actually that old either: it was built in 1978.

New Camera Truck

In other business,
Ryan told the Service Board that a new camera truck has been ordered from
Eco Infrastructure Solutions of Whitestown, Ind., at a cost of $190,943.60.

That truck may not,
however, be delivered for some time, Ryan added. “It may or may not get here
by year’s end,” he said. “Twelve to 16 weeks.”

In the event of an
emergency, President Larry Brandt wanted to know, would the collections crew
be able to use the old camera truck, mechanical problems and all?

Ryan replied that
the crew would be able to make do with it, but only in an emergency. In any
case, he said, the entire collections system has been televised within the
last several years and was on the second go-around when the old truck began
developing problems, so--knock on wood--there shouldn’t be any immediate
untoward surprises.

September in Review

In September,
Chesterton used 44.25 percent of its 3,668,000 gallon per day (gpd)
allotment of the wastewater treatment plant; Porter, 48.81 percent of its
851,000 gpd allotment; the Indian Boundary Conservancy District, 47.78
percent of its 81,000 gpd allotment; and the plant as a whole, 44.50 percent
of its capacity.

There were no
bypasses of wastewater into the Little Calumet River last month, which was
the third driest of the year, with 2.48 inches of rain recorded (1.30 in
March, 1.06 in January).

The Utility ran a
surplus of $310,745.12 in September and in the year-to-date is running a
surplus of $603,244.80.

McCord on Voting

Member Scot McCord
took a moment at the end of the meeting to urge Dunelanders to vote in the
general election on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

“Get out and vote,”
McCord said. “Our community has a tendency to complain about issues but not
vote. You’ve got to vote.”